


Continuity in Fantasy Literature

by greendale_student



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Dungeons & Dragons, F/M, Season/Series 05
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:27:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26012614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greendale_student/pseuds/greendale_student
Summary: The study group plays Dungeons and Dragons again, and Annie and Abed reprise some roles from the first game.  Takes place during season 5.
Relationships: Annie Edison/Abed Nadir
Comments: 4
Kudos: 41





	Continuity in Fantasy Literature

_A winged shape speeds across the skies above the land of Galindor, soaring among the clouds but with vaster wings than a bird. The inhabitants are celebrating the flight of the necromancer who had terrorized them, but warily, for with the tyrant’s retreat armies are gathering for war. Looking up to see the grand and mysterious shape of a speeding Pegasus, many wonder what the animal’s arrival signals for the great events unfolding across this land. Even the sky spiders of the Hawthorne Mountains, watching the powerful flier from a safe distance, speak with awe in their strange language of the winged horse—and from their vantage point, they also note the presence of a rider._

_As the Pegasus clears the mountain mists, the elf maiden riding atop the powerful sky-horse stares at the vast landscape of Galindor, with the wild Skull River slicing through unbroken green jungle. Beyond the forest, towns and fields appear, and strong fortresses on the rugged ground. Mightiest of these is the tower where the necromancer had schemed for power, but it now stands vacant as he flees his determined pursuers and two hobgoblin warlords try to rally troops to contest the stronghold. When the elf maiden guides her steed to a landing in the fields around the tower, the Pegasus can graze peacefully in the lush grass, with no sounds of combat to disturb the scenery. The elf maiden searches the field, holding a dazzlingly bright jewel—an ancient elven amulet of great power._

“Abed?” Annie asks from her perch on Apartment 303’s couch. “I don’t mean to question your plot, but shouldn’t our characters be doing something?”

Abed glances up from his reams of notes on the setting of the current adventure, surveying the players who are mostly fixated on pizza and text messages. If they aren’t listening to this important exposition, it could lead to chaos when they’re prompted to make decisions in the game. But Annie is the only one who seems attentive.

“Your characters have been murdered in the contest to see which team could defeat the necromancer,” Abed explains. “I’ve provided a plot rationale for reviving them, but something like that needs a sufficiently dramatic setup to establish the scene. There’s a rhythm to these things.”

“Come on, Abed, just wave your amulet and start the game!” Jeff protests.

“Jeff! Let him set up the story,” Annie says. She seems persuaded of the importance of narrative pacing, though Abed thinks this also fits a pattern of seeking opportunities to persuade Jeff to act friendlier. Noting the data point, he focuses on the game.

After the study group’s carefully planned and thoroughly derailed _Dungeons and Dragons_ game had succeeded in producing a very argumentative reconciliation between Buzz and Hank Hickey, Abed had set up a regular time for them to keep playing, but this sort of thing was much more interesting with the original study group’s range of play styles—not to mention the callback to one of their most compelling Greendale adventures. With less need for persuasion than he had expected, Abed had invited Annie, Jeff, Britta, Shirley, the Dean, and Chang to play again and continue their characters’ arcs. It should make for an exciting scenario, even if most of them aren’t paying as much attention to the worldbuilding as they’re supposed to. Then again, Abed had used a less elaborate setup for the group's first game and that turned out great. He glances at Annie, looking reasonably enthusiastic as she waits to start playing.

_Searching the field, the elf maiden finds the warriors killed in combat scattered in the grass. As she touches each one with the amulet, they arise, wounds healed from its power. Reaching one mighty figure, she stares for a moment before reviving him. Hector opens his eyes to see a familiar face from a previous adventure._

Annie’s eyes widen in recognition. Since her character had been maintained between the study group’s two adventures, it was perfectly logical to use that link to continue his plot. Abed is too busy to think more about why he included that character sheet with the new ones to begin with.

Annie shakes her head to focus herself and takes on the mannerisms of her character. “You came back to save me,” she says softly, staring at Abed. They’re seated a few feet apart, but something about her performance makes it feel closer.

“How could I not, Hector?” Abed asks in-character. He finds himself strangely distracted from planning out the game.

“Wait, so the villain ran away?” Jeff asks. His disregard for roleplaying fits his approach in these situations, though Abed wonders if there’s more to it than that. Annie looks offended, but Abed replies in character.

“Yes, but this band of adventurers still has a mission,” the elf maiden announces, sounding suitably mysterious. Abed scrambles to remember his outline. Annie’s roleplaying talents can be distracting—even when he’s not quite in character. But just as she established the character arc that’s now playing out, that makes her important to the study group’s success in the game.

“The necromancer trained in the study of sorcery, and kept his methods secret from his followers, but in order to control an army he used a magical artifact to focus his powers,” Abed continues in character. “If the hobgoblin armies capture it, one of their leaders could use it to reestablish his tyranny. Your quest is to find the artifact and destroy it before they do that.”

“I’d be glad to help everyone with the quest,” Shirley says sweetly, “but I’m not sure what I can do since you left my character out.”

“Shirley, your character has important skills for the mission, but the elf maiden needs to find her back in the jungle and revive her first. The rest of you can study the tower while I fly there.”

“Shouldn’t you have some backup for that?” Annie asks.

Abed guesses she has a good point.

_The elf maiden and her ally climb on the Pegasus and fly. As they take off from the field into wild breezes, Hector wraps his arms around her. In this fashion, they soar across the river into the jungle, while townsfolk watch in awe._

Abed hadn’t expected Hector to join the mission, but it actually makes more sense for the character arc of his romance with the elf maiden, though that makes what he had thought of a small subplot into a bigger part of the story arc. It also means that Annie takes a break from the game while the group scouts out the tower. Even as he narrates that plot, Abed is distracted, revising the jungle subplot he’d planned for the game. The study group argues a lot about what to do, and Jeff and the Dean are at odds when the Dean attempts to roleplay some character tension with an uninterested Jeff, but then Britta tries to read a book and opens a secret tunnel behind the bookshelf. They agree to wait for the rest of the party, and Abed switches the scene to the jungle across the river, joining Annie and Shirley in Annie’s bedroom so the group won’t know what they see.

_Having successfully revived Crouton the Druid, the elf maiden explains the situation. As they prepare to fly back to the tower, Hector lifts her gently onto the Pegasus. As Hector leans towards her, the elf maiden thinks of their previous encounter._

Abed becomes aware that Annie is actually leaning pretty close to his face when he hears Shirley make a disapproving sound. He backs away warily; Annie leaps backwards onto her bed, startled. “And he kisses her, or something,” she announces, blushing. Shirley looks like she’s about to comment further; Abed remembers why he was wary of using this character pairing with the whole group here for this game.

“A noise from the forest grabs your attention,” Abed announces hastily before Shirley can say anything.

_A hostile hobgoblin patrol charges among the trees. As Crouton shifts the vines to trip them, the Pegasus leaps into flight, and they soar past the treetops. But a huge flying animal with leathery wings nearly collides with them, almost knocking the riders off. As they veer off towards the river, they see a hobgoblin rider steering the animal. The powerful Pegasus outflies the pursuit, but they see the winged shape trailing behind them as they fly back to the tower to begin the main quest._

As they go back to the living room to join the group, Abed’s hand brushes against Annie’s in the doorway and they exchange a nervous glance. Shirley is watching them intently with little attempt at a pretense of discretion. They sit on the couch, careful to keep a couple feet between them. Abed describes the Pegasus’s arrival at the tower and the study group starts playing.

Annie and Abed are both more cautious with their roleplaying in front of the whole group, and Abed suggests that the elf maiden stay outside the tower as a lookout, so he narrates the next few scenes of the adventure without playing a character. He should have remembered that this was the safest way to interact in confusing situations. Even so, Abed thinks he sees Annie watching him more closely than usual as they continue the game.

_Following the secret tunnel, the adventurers encounter the zombies the necromancer used to guard his secrets, necromancer-style. Experienced in combat, they easily defeat the zombies and, relying on Crouton’s mystical knowledge, retrieve the most powerful artifact in the stronghold. Now they must learn how to destroy it and free Galindor from the threat posed by its power._

Abed lets the study group argue about the best way to destroy the artifact for a while, wary of the way the plot twist he had envisioned would require him to take an active role again. But when it becomes clear that even Chang’s troll character is unable to simply smash the artifact, the players are getting annoyed and he starts the next scene.

_A light in the dark tunnel draws the attention of the befuddled warriors. The elf maiden appears, carrying the glowing amulet._

“You need to go back outside,” Abed warns them. “The hobgoblins are at the tower!”

_A group of hobgoblin soldiers charges into the secret lair from another door. The adventurers fight their way out, helped by the arrival of a second hobgoblin force fighting against the first. Hector recognizes the two rivals he had helped interrogate before leading the factions. The group races back through the tunnel, outrunning their pursuers. As they reach the trapdoor, Hector lifts the elf maiden to help her to safety. Running across the grass as swords clash around them, they find the Pegasus safe in a sheltered meadow on the edge of the forest._

Excited from the chase, the players are more likely to pay attention to exposition in this scene, as Abed figured when he planned this game. “The amulet is the key to destroying the artifact,” he explains in character. As Abed describes some of the worldbuilding he’s been working on, most of the players are uninterested, but Annie is attentive as usual. It seems the focus she applies to classes is also useful in roleplaying games.

_As the elf maiden finishes explaining the way to destroy the necromancer’s power, the treetops shake and the flying animal from the jungle lands in the meadow. Leaping off its back, a hobgoblin holds the elf maiden hostage at sword point and grabs both the amulet and the artifact._

“ _Who are you?” Crouton asks the hobgoblin as swords are drawn for combat._

“ _I am Li’sza, apprentice necromancer and brilliant schemer,” she announces. “Behold the culmination of my sinister plans!”_

If they were inattentive before, the players are suitably impressed at Abed’s plotting now. Annie is again the first to see the connection. “Wait—Li’sza? Wasn’t that the third character in the love triangle?” She gestures in the direction where they imagined the fight between armies at the command of two romantic rivals. Abed nods appreciatively.

“ _While those two fools fought to win my favor, I was studying the necromancer’s lore in secret,” Li’sza explains. “But he only wanted to use his power to build an army like any common warlord. I dared to seek greater abilities, and there are secrets of ancient times hidden in Frimrock Canyon. Your mission was essential to my plan. The amulet’s power can be combined with that of the artifact, and you brought them both here! Watch!”_

_Li’sza lifts a strange rock and touches it with both the artifact and the amulet. There is a dazzling flash of light, and when the onlookers can see again the rock seems to have disappeared. Then, in the trees, they see a gigantic animal—fluffy feathers concealing incredible strength, amusingly tiny arms but an enormous head full of fearsome fangs. Li’sza waves a hand and the tyrannosaur steps forward, towering above even the troll and snarling fiercely._

“ _With a few of these at my command,” she boasts, “I can build an empire! Now, drop your weapons!”_

While the study group has an animated conversation about what to do, Abed reviews the stats for the epic combat. He anticipates it might take some guesswork, but they should eventually work out that Shirley’s character can counter Li’sza’s control of the tyrannosaur. “What would you like to do?” Abed asks the players.

“I leap at Li’sza, swinging my sword, to rescue the elf maiden!” Annie says.

That was a bolder strategy than Abed planned on. Watching Annie roll the dice to simulate the fight, he tries to figure out why she’s been so eager to pursue the romance arc throughout the game. It fits her character and her previous roleplaying experiences to flirt a bit, but this feels like she’s applying the same drivenness she brings to classes—or to paintball. “You successfully free the elf maiden,” Abed rolls more dice, “Li’sza drops the amulet and the artifact, and you avoid the charging tyrannosaur.”

Annie celebrates enthusiastically while Britta retrieves the amulet. Annie’s daring rescue rearranged Abed’s script for the game. This is less like the study group’s first game and more like _Jurassic Park_. But somehow Abed finds this version of the adventure more interesting than the one he’d planned.

_Leaping onto the Pegasus, Hector and the elf maiden take flight and distract the tyrannosaur while the rest flee into the forest. Li’sza runs off in the direction of the necromancer’s previous flight. The dinosaur goes to the field and charges the fighting hobgoblin armies, causing chaos. After some comical attempts to intervene in combat, the adventurers manage to approach close enough for Crouton to calm the tyrannosaur. As the hobgoblins flee, the tyrannosaur cautiously befriends the Pegasus and the adventurers celebrate a great victory._

“That should conclude our adventure—“ Abed begins.

“Wait!” Annie says. “Hector turns to the elf maiden and kisses her passionately.” In front of the group, she doesn’t try to act that out, but she looks at Abed and for a moment her expression is the only thing he can pay attention to. When he regains the presence of mind to look around, Jeff looks vaguely annoyed, the Dean and Chang are laughing, and Britta and Shirley are whispering together. Abed has trouble reading Annie’s expression, but in a moment she smiles secretively. “You were saying?” She prompts Abed.

As he finishes the narration, Abed is still wondering what exactly Annie’s behavior tonight means. But he’s sure that _Dungeons and Dragons_ with the study group—and especially Annie—always makes for a very exciting game.

  
  



End file.
